Chapter 402: Building upgrade, preparations and plans, husband-and-wife tacit understanding

Saint Meridian Pill!

Just as the pill was taking shape, Xia Hong had already smelled a rich, exotic fragrance.

Taking the yellow porcelain bottle handed over by Cheng Feng, he opened it immediately.

Seeing the six golden, round pills inside, Xia Hong's expression stirred slightly; he looked up at Cheng Feng, his face revealing a hint of anticipation.

Cheng Feng naturally understood why Xia Hong wore such an expression. The excitement in his eyes had not yet dissipated as he said in an agitated tone, "My Lord, this Saint Meridian Pill has miraculous effects on meridian-type injuries. I am not yet sure what effect it has on those at the Manifestation of Yang level, but for someone at the Cold-Resisting level, even if their entire body's meridians were snapped, eating this would allow them to recover as good as new in less than a day. You should still have an impression of that Shi Qing, right?"

Seeing Xia Hong nod, Cheng Feng continued, "Shi Qing was crippled back then because the joints all over his body and all the meridians within him were completely destroyed by the Wood Puppet Ghost using silk threads. Four years ago, Deputy Si Zheng connected all the joints and major meridians throughout his body, which gave him the chance to practice cultivation again. But because the vast majority of the meridians within his body remain in a broken state, his cultivation is much slower than others, and when fighting, he can at most exert fifty to sixty percent of his strength."

Meridians are equivalent to the human body's sensors; whether in battle or cultivation, the role they play is extremely critical. Xia Hong naturally understood this principle, and hearing this, he basically had a count in his heart.

"When I refined the first batch the day before yesterday, I found Shi Qing to test the pill. After he finished the pill, the injuries to his meridians healed immediately, and his base strength rose on the spot from 1 mane to 1.2 manes."

"In other words, this Saint Meridian Pill has a huge effect on the Cold-Resisting level?"

"It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a divine medicine. Not to mention Shi Qing's situation, among those who hunt and fight outside all year round, who doesn't have some damage to their meridians? As long as they take the Saint Meridian Pill, their meridians can immediately be as good as new. If this pill were placed in the Camp Supply Department, I fear it would be snatched up like crazy immediately!"

Xia Hong nodded immediately upon hearing this and continued to ask, "Which spiritual materials are needed to refine the Saint Meridian Pill? Can it be refined in large batches?"

Hearing this question, Cheng Feng's expression stalled, and he smiled bitterly, "This Saint Meridian Pill requires a total of 28 types of spiritual plants to refine. Most are no problem, but only the Tendon-Breaking Grass and Huang Yu Stone Milk are the hardest to get. The Tendon-Breaking Grass was just found last month in the Nine Bends Water Domain; there were only 5 stalks in total. The Huang Yu Stone Milk was sent back by people from the Zhaoyang outpost five days ago. I asked, and it was accidentally discovered in a stone cave deep in the Northern Mang Mountains."

"I have already transplanted the Tendon-Breaking Grass to the medicinal field, but this Huang Yu Stone Milk should be a naturally formed spiritual material; wanting to transplant it is impossible. Unless a large amount of Huang Yu Stone Milk can be discovered, large-scale refining is definitely impossible."

"I have not yet rated the Saint Meridian Pill, but judging by this refining difficulty, it should be a Level 6 spiritual pill without a doubt."

Hearing that the refining conditions were so harsh, Xia Hong shook his head repeatedly.

Cheng Feng is the Director of the Harvesting Department. Five years ago, he and Deputy Director Bai Dongying divided all pills in Great Xia into six grades and established a supporting Level 6 pill master assessment system.

Level 6 is the highest level of spiritual pill. As far as he knows, there are only twelve types of spiritual pills currently designated as Level 6, among which the most representative should be the Bone-Condensing Pill, Bone-Gathering Pill, Long Hu Li Dan, and Blue Cod Pill.

After all, good things are hard to find. If a good thing like the Saint Meridian Pill could be produced easily, that would be strange.

Xia Hong sighed slightly and put the Saint Meridian Pill away first. Then he looked up and scanned the Alchemy Pavilion, asking with curiosity, "How many types of pill formulas has the Alchemy Pavilion synthesized so far?"

Hearing this question, the bitter smile on Cheng Feng's face disappeared instantly, and his expression stirred slightly, "Ever since the Lord opened up the Five Plains Water Domain last October, I have received a steady stream of new species here. Thanks to the fact that most of them are spiritual plants and materials, the medicinal materials identified by the Alchemy Pavilion are increasing, and the synthesized pill formulas are also skyrocketing without interruption."

"As of April this year, the total number of medicinal materials identified by the Alchemy Pavilion has reached as high as 4,821, and there are 128 synthesized pill formulas in total."

"At the end of April, the Lord took down the Bashing Zhencheng and the Nine Bends Camp, and another large batch of new species was sent over; plus, with the acquisition of He Yin Village in July, the camp's hunting teams can freely enter the Mo Ao Mountains. The new spiritual plants and materials transported back during this period are countless. The new medicinal materials identified by the Alchemy Pavilion reach dozens every day, and now there are 5,291 medicinal materials. Almost every day, new pill formulas are synthesized, and there are 304 so far."

"And as the exploration progress in He Yin Village deepens, more new species will be sent back, and the number of synthesized pill formulas will continue to skyrocket. I predict that this round of skyrocketing will last for a long time, and the total number of synthesized pill formulas should eventually reach over 500."

Hearing that Great Xia currently has 304 types of pills, Xia Hong couldn't help but feel excited. He lowered his head and pondered for a moment, his heart immediately agreeing with Cheng Feng's prediction, even feeling it was a bit conservative.

The primary function of the Alchemy Workshop is identification. Any medicinal species identified will be recorded, and then, based on the medicinal properties of these different medicines, various pill formulas will be automatically synthesized.

It is equivalent to a database with an automatic integration function. The only way to maximize its effect is to continuously feed it new spiritual plants and materials, making its database grow continuously. Naturally, more and more formulas will be synthesized and produced.

Where do new spiritual plants and materials come from?

The most important way, of course, is the expansion of Great Xia's territory. Only by expanding territory, continuously opening up new resource areas, and having the camp personnel's range of activities grow larger and larger, can more new types of spiritual materials and plants be discovered.

Last October, Great Xia had only opened up the Five Plains Water Domain. In April, it officially marched into the Blue River Estuary, took down the entire north bank of the Xinghe, then took advantage of the situation to occupy the entire Hong Sect, then pulled teeth from the tiger's mouth to snatch Bashing City and the Nine Bends Camp from the Beishuo and Chuishan towns, and finally asked for He Yin Village from the Jiangxia Town. The benefits brought by this series of phased expansions are extremely terrifying.

Not to mention anything else, the territory alone has increased by at least one-third.

Since Great Xia took down the entire Longyou six years ago, excluding the growth in its own exploration progress of the three major resource areas, the territory basically had no major changes, maintaining a scale of over 15,000 square kilometers.

This time, taking down the entire north bank of the Xinghe, plus the area around Bashing Zhencheng, as well as the Nine Bends Camp and He Yin Village, although the current territory has not been specifically measured, Xia Hong estimates it should be at least over 21,000 square kilometers.

The benefits brought by this round of territorial expansion have not yet been fully manifested.

Just take one example: the iron and coal mines that were dreamed of in the early years. Xia Hong hasn't cared about how many Great Xia has specifically for a long time. He only knows that a steady stream of iron ore and coal stones are transported back from all over every month. The original Camp Supply Department warehouse was set up on the second floor of the main building. That warehouse was already filled up three years ago. Last year, the Craftsman Department built a new headquarters hall for the Camp Supply Department next to the main building. The original second-floor warehouse of the main building is now specifically used as a silver storage point.

As the exploration progress of the two resource points, the water domain and the Mo Ao Mountains, continues to deepen, there will be more and more materials available for the Alchemy Pavilion to identify, and the number of synthesized pill formulas will inevitably rise with the tide.

Cheng Feng suddenly thought of something, and his expression opened up with joy mixed with worry, "By the way, My Lord, your subordinate has been worrying about the medicinal field recently..."

As Cheng Feng spoke, Xia Hong's expression also became increasingly strange.

The medicinal field is not enough!

The medicinal field can consume coal stones to cultivate spiritual plants. When the Alchemy Workshop was Level 3, it was equipped with a ten-meter medicinal field. At that time, the number of precious spiritual plants in Great Xia was not large, and that ten-meter medicinal field was basically used to cultivate Cold Han Han Ping Yu Lu.

Cold Han Han Ping Yu Lu is the main material for refining the Yang Origin Pill. The Yang Origin Pill is used for those at the Cold-Resisting level to improve their strength. Its importance is self-evident, so the limited medicinal field resources naturally had to be tilted toward it.

Later, after the Level 3 Alchemy Workshop was upgraded to a Level 4 Alchemy Pavilion, the medicinal field also grew to five hundred meters square, and the spiritual plants available for cultivation suddenly increased.

Cold Han Han Ping Yu Lu, Silver Flower, White Frost Grass... In short, whatever is most useful and most in short supply is transplanted. The 500-meter-square medicinal field has long been crowded.

Cheng Feng continued here.

"These spiritual plants are often several meters wide, and spiritual plants with different medicinal properties planted together are also prone to mutual interference. I planned and planned the 500-meter-square medicinal field, and it was only with great difficulty that I filled them up, but even so, I can only plant more than 120 spiritual plants. This number is too small..."

Just as Cheng Feng said, the total number of medicinal materials identified by the Alchemy Pavilion is 5,291. Since they are medicinal materials, spiritual plants and herbs must account for the majority. Excluding other spiritual materials, spiritual plants and herbs account for at least 70%, which is more than 3,000 types.

According to the scale of spiritual plants in the Frozen Abyss World, being able to transplant 120 plants into a 500-meter-square medicinal field is already very good. Cheng Feng must have put in a lot of effort.

"I came back this time to solve this problem for you!"

Hearing Xia Hong's words, Cheng Feng's expression stalled, and he was instantly full of anticipation.

【Alchemy Pavilion (Level 4)】

【Upgrade conditions: 100 million wood, 100 million coal, 200 million iron, 6 million silver, 300 synthesized pill formulas】

Xia Hong quietly opened the system to check the information of the Alchemy Pavilion. Seeing the final upgrade condition column, his heart stirred slightly.

The resources required for the Alchemy Pavilion to upgrade from Level 4 to Level 5 were actually already enough. He had been waiting for the number of synthesized formulas to meet the standard. A few days ago, when he was preparing to go to White Tiger Pool, he already knew that the number of pill formulas had met the standard.

Upgrade!

Xia Hong's heart stirred slightly, and the numbers in the resource column dropped sharply. Then, the entire Alchemy Pavilion erupted with a burst of light. Many pill masters who were refining pills in the quiet room were suddenly panicked.

"No need to panic, it won't affect your alchemy!"

Hearing Xia Hong's voice, the expressions of all the pill masters stirred slightly.

The pill masters who can stay in the Alchemy Pavilion for a long time can be considered core personnel of the Harvesting Department. They had basically experienced the scene of building upgrades before, so seeing this familiar scene, their expressions suddenly became expectant.

Of course, the most expectant one was Cheng Feng, the Director of the Harvesting Department.

In less than ten breaths, the upgrade of the Alchemy Pavilion was completed.

The overall appearance of the pavilion remained unchanged, but the green medicine cauldron in the center expanded in volume by double, with a diameter of more than five meters, and the overall color became increasingly transparent. The simple cloud patterns on the outside also turned into a gilded silver color. Whether in appearance or temperament, it was more advanced than the original.

Xia Hong couldn't wait to check the description of the upgraded Alchemy Pavilion:

【Alchemy Pavilion (Level 5): Alchemy equipment. Put any item into the main cauldron to identify the item's attributes. Items with medicinal properties will be automatically recorded.】

【Special function 1: Can automatically generate formulas based on records. Put materials into the main cauldron according to the formula, add water and boil, and pills can be automatically formed.】

【Special function 2: The main cauldron can be used for injury identification and healing. Any injuries of those with cultivation below the Venerable Phase level can be recovered after being identified by the main cauldron and treated with the right medicine.】

【Special function 3: The pavilion is equipped with 100 sub-medicine furnaces. Refining pills in the medicine furnaces can increase the pill master's success rate by 30%.】

【Special function 4: Comes with a one-thousand-meter medicinal field, which can consume coal stones to cultivate spiritual medicine.】

After reading the entire description, Xia Hong's expression became excited instantly.

The function of the main cauldron remained unchanged, the sub-medicine furnaces increased from the previous 50 to 100, and the medicinal field expanded fourfold, which just happened to solve Cheng Feng's problem.

The key is Special Function 2.

"Unexpectedly, I actually learned about the cultivation realm after the Manifestation of Yang level through the Alchemy Pavilion. Venerable Phase level... Venerable Phase level..."

Xia Hong couldn't help but ponder a few times, his eyes full of curiosity and yearning.

"That Fangbo of the Cai Qiu vassal town is probably at this cultivation level. Judging by the strength gap between different cultivation realms, a powerhouse at this level should be able to crush the Manifestation of Yang level!"

Thinking of this, Xia Hong couldn't help but feel a bit more urgency.

The main cauldron can be used to identify and heal injuries for those below the Venerable Phase level, so it doesn't matter if the Saint Meridian Pill cannot recover Xiang Fuhai's injuries.

Of course, there are also relatively important consumption and subsequent upgrade conditions:

【Consumption: 30,000 coal/hour for boiling and refining pills; the identification function will consume coal stones and silver depending on the preciousness of the item; the medicinal field consumes 2,000 silver/day; the main cauldron healing function consumes 1 million silver points/time】

【Upgrade conditions: 500 million wood, 500 million coal, 900 million iron, 50 million silver, 20,000 gold, 1,000 synthesized pill formulas】

Tsk tsk tsk............

After reading the last two descriptions, Xia Hong couldn't help but shake his head repeatedly.

The function is powerful, but the consumption has also become extremely astonishing.

Coal stones don't matter; Great Xia now has too much overflow.

Silver is 2,000 points a day. The medicinal field must be used every day. Converted to a year, it is more than 700,000 points, equivalent to 35 million taels of silver.

The key is the consumption for healing people. It costs 1 million silver resources at a time, which is equivalent to 50 million taels of physical silver. The silver Great Xia earns from the seven towns in a year is only enough to see a doctor eight times.

That's right, it's seeing a doctor.

The system description says it very clearly. After identification by the main cauldron, it still needs to be treated with the right medicine. That is to say, the main cauldron is responsible for identification, and the specific treatment means still have to be done by oneself later.

As for the requirements for subsequent upgrade conditions, it did not exceed his expectations. Resource consumption doubled, and a gold requirement was added, which means that there is basically no need to think about upgrading the Alchemy Pavilion in the short term.

"The medicinal field can be expanded. You go and notify Mu Dong to send craftsmen to start reclaiming new land on the inner side of the valley."

"Your subordinate obeys!"

Hearing this, Cheng Feng was instantly excited and hurriedly bowed to agree.

During the last upgrade of the three pavilions, the land in Great Xia's inner city was not enough. Now that the inner city population is growing, the eight departments have also specifically built their own halls. Xia Chuan had long arranged for the Craftsman Department to continuously expand the area of the inner city toward the inner side of the valley.

"Alright, you continue to be busy! I still have to go to the other two pavilions."

"Your subordinate respectfully sends off the Lord!"

Hearing this, Cheng Feng's expression stalled, realizing that this time not only the Alchemy Pavilion, but the Weapon Refining Pavilion and the Martial Arts Pavilion would have major changes, and his mood was instantly excited.

The Martial Arts Pavilion improves cultivation efficiency, the Weapon Refining Pavilion enriches the armory, and the pills of the Alchemy Pavilion go without saying. These three buildings are closely related to everyone in Great Xia. Every change in them basically indicates that the camp will usher in a round of major development. As the Director of the Harvesting Department, Cheng Feng naturally knows this, which is why he is so excited.

And just as he was excited, Xia Hong had quietly arrived at the Weapon Refining Pavilion.

"18 manes, your cultivation is even worse than Cheng Feng's. You basically don't leave Xia City at all, right?"

Mu Dong was not refining weapons today, but was teaching his disciples. The change in the Weapon Refining Pavilion just now should have alarmed him, so seeing Xia Hong come over, there was not much surprise on his face.

Mu Dong, who had just sent his disciples away, heard Xia Hong mention his cultivation, his expression stalled instantly, and he nodded with a bitter smile, "Your subordinate is indeed obsessed with weapon refining and hasn't left Xia City for several years. My Lord, please forgive me."

Xia Hong waved his hand and said, "Cheng Feng is also a medium-grade battle body like you, but his strength has already reached 23 manes, which shows that he has spent a lot of effort on cultivation. Neither of you should lack contribution points. I remember that the monthly exchange limit for Dragon Carp Pills and Blue Cod Pills for the Directors of the Eight Departments is 10 each. Your strength shouldn't be lagging behind him by so much, right?"

When a medium-grade battle body breaks through, the base strength will not exceed 16 manes. Mu Dong and Cheng Feng are both at the peak of the Cold-Resisting level. To continue to improve, they can only rely on pills. Under the supply of equal resources, a 5-mane gap in strength is obviously a bit problematic.

Either Mu Dong doesn't spend time on cultivation, or he didn't exchange for so many pills.

"My Lord has sharp eyes. Your subordinate really doesn't want to spend too much time on cultivation, so the Dragon Carp Pills and Blue Cod Pills exchanged were basically given to my son."

Mu Dong has two sons, named Mu Yan and Mu Feng. Xia Hong has some impression of them. Hearing that he gave all his cultivation resources to his son, he shook his head and said, "This is your family matter, and I shouldn't have talked too much. However, I must remind you that your forging ability is also closely related to your strength. Now, weapons at the 100,000-forging level require hundreds of Cold-Resisting level craftsmen to forge day and night for more than half a year. For higher-level weapons later, I estimate that without the Manifestation of Yang level cultivation, you don't even need to think about it. At that time, you can't let me, the Lord, stay in the Weapon Refining Pavilion to forge weapons like before, right?"

Hearing Xia Hong's banter, Mu Dong's expression stalled.

"And, if I remember correctly, you are already fifty-seven this year. The lifespan of the Cold-Resisting level is one hundred years. Whether you can live to that age is a problem. If you don't pay attention to your cultivation, it will be too late to regret when your lifespan runs out!"

Mu Dong is a craftsman who merged from the Luo Ge camp in the early years. He was already over forty when Great Xia moved to the valley. Among the current Directors of the Eight Departments, except for Li Tiancheng, the Director of the Prison Department, he is the oldest.

Hearing Xia Hong's reminder, Mu Dong's expression suddenly stalled. He was obviously awakened. Looking at Xia Hong, his expression moved, "Thank you for the reminder, My Lord. Your subordinate understands. I will definitely spend more time on cultivation in the future." ===== CHAPTER 403 =====